Soloists: BCF 25th Anniversary Concert

Julia Wilson-James (Soprano, singing as 'the Angei'.)

Julia has a strong presence in music in Brentwood and Essex, and she has sung with the BCF more than any other soloist. She founded 'Bra-vissima', a Ladies Choir which rehearses in Brentwood. Please visit Bra-vissima

Julia Wilson-James (soprano) was born in Ilford and began singing seriously when, at the age of eleven, she entered Redbridge Music School, studying under the late Edna Graham until she gained a place at the Royal Academy of Music. At the Academy, Julia studied with Patricia Clark and Clara Taylor, and won the Benjamin Britten Prize and a St Marylebone scholarship. She now studies with Patrizia Kwella.

Julia has performed for many celebrated conductors for both concerts and recordings, including the late Richard Hickox, as well as regularly with the BBC Singers, Nicholas Kraemer, Sir Simon Rattle, the King’s Consort, Richard Cooke, Roger Norrington, John Rutter’s Cambridge Singers and the Monteverdi Choir. Julia’s international solo performances have included Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, which she sang on tour with the Israel Chamber Orchestra. She later performed the Bach Mass in B Minor with the same orchestra in Israel, a performance that was much acclaimed. In Norway, she sang Fauré’s Requiem with the Norwegian Soloists Choir and has worked for several seasons with the London Opera Chorus in Lyon and Vienna.

In the UK Julia is a frequent soloist for choral societies, especially in the South East of England. She has appeared at St Martin in the Fields, Norwich Cathedral, The Purcell Room, Thaxted Church and Brentwood Cathedral. Julia has recently completed a recording of church choral and solo music with Andrew Wright, Master of Music at Brentwood Cathedral, and these are available on CD.

In addition to her professional singing engagements, Julia is currently Director of Vocal Studies at Brentwood School and Head of Vocal Tuition for the boy choristers at Brentwood Cathedral. She is also a Lay Clerk in Brentwood Cathedral Choir. In spring 2007, following a long-held desire by Julia to create a ladies choir, ‘Bravissima’ was formed.

Robert Murray (Tenor singing as?????)

Robert's connection with Brentwood Music is through Andrew Wright ( the Cathedral Director of Music in Brentwood and Director of Liturgical Music for the Diocese), with whom he has worked in various performances.NB The following profile is taken, virtually verbatim, from the text available on website page Askonas Holt .

Robert Murray (Tenor singing as??????) studied at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio. He won second prize in the Kathleen Ferrier awards 2003 and was a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. His operatic roles at the Royal Opera House include Tamino ('Die Zauberflote'), Lysander (‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’), Agenore ('Il re Pastore'), Belfiore (‘La Finta Giardiniera’), Jacquino (‘Fidelio’) and Don Ottavio (‘Don Giovanni’). Other roles include the title role in ‘Albert Herring’ for Glyndebourne On Tour; Nanki-Poo, Tamino, Don Ottavio and Idamante for English National Opera and Tom Rakewell (‘The Rake’s Progress’) for Garsington Opera.

Robert's concert work includes Haydn’s Nelson Mass with Sir John Eliot Gardiner for the BBC Proms; Handel’s ‘Solomon’ with the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Hamburg; Mozart’s C Minor Mass both with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras, and with Le Concert D’Astrée; Britten’s War Requiem with Simone Young and Britten’s ‘Our Hunting Fathers’ with Thomas Adès at the Aldeburgh Festival; Strauss’s ‘Elektra’ with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Edward Gardner, Schumann’s ‘Manfred’ with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov at the Edinburgh Festival and ‘Tristan und Isolde’ with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev.

In recital, Robert has performed at the Newbury, Two Moors and Aldeburgh Festivals. He has toured ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’ extensively with Malcolm Martineau, recorded a recital of Brahms, Poulenc and Barber with Simon Lepper for Voices on BBC Radio 3, and performed ‘On Wenlock Edge’ with the Dante Quartet both at the 2006 Brighton Festival and at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Roderick Earle (Baritone)

Roderick's connection with Brentwood Music is through Andrew Wright ( the Cathedral Director of Music in Brentwood and Director of Liturgical Music for the Diocese), with whom he has worked in various performances.
NB The following profile is a shortened version of text available on a page of the website of the Royal College of Music , and it incorporates data from a page on the website of the Colchester Chamber Choir

Roderick Earle was born in Winchester (where he was a boy chorister in the cathedral choir) He graduated from Cambridge, where he read Music and was a Choral Scholar in the renowned St. John's College Choir. He was then awarded a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where he studied on the Opera Course, later continuing his studies with Otakar Kraus. He went on to being awarded a Greater London Arts Association Musician of the Year Award, and, after making his opera debut with English National Opera, joined the Royal Opera making his Covent Garden debut as Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro in 1980. He was a member of the Royal Opera for 21 years, as a principal baritone, and in that time he sang in over 60 roles, in opera and in general concert works, at major venues in London and cities throughout the world.

Roderick has taught singing for the last 25 years in Cambridge, Colchester and London. He is a member of the British Voice Association and the Association of Teachers of Singing. He is a singing professor at The Royal College of Music, London, and is Artistic Director of the Harwich Festival of the Arts, 2015.

In 2010 he founded The Colchester Chamber Choir of 28 auditioned voices, which specialises in the pre-baroque and 19th / 20th century choral repertoires, and he is currently their Musical Director.

ELMS Symphony Orchestra

The Ex-London Music Students Orchestra is sourced primarily from former students of the London Music Colleges. It brings together musicians who are either currently studying or have recently graduated and are now playing professionally in the UK and abroad. Many of the players work regularly with leading orchestras including the Hallé, the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the BBC Scottish SymphonyOrchestra, the English National Opera and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. The ELMS Orchestra is very much looking forward to performing at future concerts in Brentwood Cathedral. Its previous concerts at Brentwood Cathedral includ Messiah, Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem and the opening concert of the 2014 Brentwood Arts Festival.